Campbell to reconvene legislature to help Vancouver with Olympic village financing

Premier Gordon Campbell said Wednesday he will reconvene the legislature as soon as possible to pass an amendment needed to finance Vancouver's Olympic village.

“We want to do everything we can to help and we will do it as quickly as possible,” he said. “There is some significant economic downside to dithering.”

Campbell said the legislative amendment to the Vancouver Charter will be introduced as soon as it is drafted and approved by the attorney-general.

It will be introduced at a special session of the legislature, to be held prior to Feb. 10, the date the legislature is scheduled to reconvene.

Campbell said he hopes the amendment will pass quickly. He said both he and Opposition leader Carole James received a letter Tuesday from the city saying it was requesting the amendment urgently.

On Monday, city council unanimously passed a motion asking the province to change the Vancouver Charter to give the city financing powers to pay for the project, which is set to run out of money for construction next month.

The city last week revealed it could be on the hook for the entire billion-dollar Olympic village development after the project’s lenders, Fortress Investment Group, cut off funding.

The cost of the Olympic village remains one of the big unknowns ahead of the 2010 Games, along with two other big-ticket items — transportation and security.

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan said the public is being stonewalled, particularly by TransLink, on how much it’s going to cost to provide extra buses and transit services to ferry people around during the Games.

“There’s been a tremendous effort to hide Olympic expenses and utilize Crown corporations to be able to do that,” he said, adding local politicians aren’t privy to the decisions of the TransLink board, whose members are hand-picked by the provincial government.

“It’s hard when you’re not in a position to examine what the actual costs are going to be.”

Both TransLink and Vanoc have refused since last fall to release details of the deal struck to provide transit services during the Games, citing continuing negotiations between Vanoc and BC Transit.

And taxpayers likely won’t be given any information until the end of February, when the full transportation plan is unveiled.

The lack of information has frustrated Metro Vancouver mayors, who last month asked for details on the impact of the Olympics on TransLink and were told it “would be forthcoming.”

They’re still waiting, said Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts. She plans to repeat the request at the next mayors’ council meeting later this month, at which TransLink is expected to outline options and discuss how the transportation infrastructure will be paid for.

“We’ve heard that there will be no costs to the taxpayers in terms of using buses for the Olympics, but there’s been no formal report,” said Watts, chairwoman of the TransLink advisory council of regional mayors.

“We would certainly like to obtain one.

“If there are costs implications to be borne by taxpayers we certainly need to know about it. That has to be taken into consideration in the next budget.”

TransLink and Games officials have said the region’s transit system won’t be stuck with the tab for the extra services, which include providing another 180 buses, plus service extensions for all other buses, SkyTrain, SeaBus and West Coast Express.

TransLinks spokesman Ken Hardie wouldn’t disclose the cost of those services, but said TransLink is expected to recover all of its costs from Vanoc. The money would come from the sale of Olympics event-day tickets, as well as some revenue from advertising before and during the Games.

Vanoc organizers wouldn’t say how much it will be paying TransLink.

But Hardie said TransLink wants to disclose the numbers. “We think once [Vanoc] completes the negotiations underway there should be no harm in disclosing the nature of our deal.”

Corrigan said he doubts TransLink will avoid any Olympic-related costs. The transit contract should be made public now, he said, as well as information surrounding Games’ security, particularly about how many RCMP are needed and where they’re coming from.

The B.C. government is balking at paying for a security budget that is ballooning upwards from an original $175 million toward $1 billion.

Finance Minister Colin Hansen says he has sent back to Ottawa a revised security budget with a proposal outlining what he believes B.C. should pay, as well as a mechanism to resolve outstanding disputes over cost-sharing.

He said he needs the answer before the Feb. 17 provincial budget.

Under the terms of a memorandum signed in 2006, B.C.'s costs are limited to half of any security provided within the “Games Security Coverage Area.” Hansen said the province is responsible for half the cost of venue and athlete security, but not for items such as national security, border enforcement or guarding internationally protected people.

ghamilton@vancouversun.com

ksinoski@vancouversun.comonse to Olympic village financing.

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Campbell to reconvene legislature to help Vancouver with Olympic village financing

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